Unemployment Up for Hispanics, Blacks

The un­em­ploy­ment rates for His­pan­ics and Afric­an-Amer­ic­ans rose slightly last month, ac­cord­ing to Labor De­part­ment num­bers re­leased on Fri­day.

In May, 11 per­cent of His­pan­ics who were look­ing for work couldn’t find it, up from 9.8 a month ago. Among blacks, the rate rose less than a per­cent­age point, from 13 per­cent in April to 13.6 per­cent in May.

The un­em­ploy­ment rates for whites and Asi­ans re­mained flat at 7.4 per­cent and 5.2 per­cent re­spect­ively.

Over­all, the un­em­ploy­ment rate rose one-tenth of 1 per­cent in May to 8.2 per­cent. The eco­nomy ad­ded 69,000 jobs, but more people joined the labor force, off­set­ting the gains, ac­cord­ing to the re­port.